John R. Gordon
John R Gordon is an Afrocentric white gay male writer resident in Shepherds Bush, London, England. Although he was a "white person from a white suburb", according to Gordon, in the 1980s he became deeply interested in black cultural figures such as James Baldwin, Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon, and they have influenced his work ever since. Early work He wrote a 1999 sitcom pilot The Melting Pot about a macho black British man coming to terms with his brother's homosexuality. Although it never made it beyond Channel 4's Sitcom Festival to television, the Independent praised it for offering innovative characters and situations.James Rampton, "Comedy: Situation vacant", The Independent, 07 July 1999, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy-situation-vacant-1104780.html ''Noah's Arc'' Gordon script-edited two seasons of Patrik-Ian Polk's television show Noah's Arc (2005-6) for the US cable channel Logo. He wrote two episodes of the second season, and across 2007 co-storylined (with Polk and Q. Allan Brocka) the spin-off feature-film, subsequently co-writing the screenplay with Polk. The film, Noah's Arc: Jumping The Broom, was given a limited release in six American cities, where it played to sold-out houses at the end of October 2008 and recouped $500,000 in ticket sales alone. The "Jumping The Broom" script that Gordon and Polk wrote was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, as was the film itself in the Best Independent Feature category. In April 2009 the film won the GLAAD Best (limited release) Feature Film. ''Souljah'' His 10-minute short film Souljah"Souljah", British Council website, http://film.britishcouncil.org/souljah - about a gay African former child soldier (B3/Angelica Entertainments 2007), and directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair - premiered at the London Film Festival on 30 October 2007. In July 2008 Souljah won the award for Best Short Film at the Rushes Soho Shorts festival. April 2009 it won Best International Short at the Toronto Reelworld Film Festival. It was directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair for Team Angelica Productions produced by Beadle-Blair, Gordon and Carleen Beadle. Later work In 2009 he co-wrote the screenplay for the short film Manali Cream (dir. Navdeep Kandola). In summer 2009 his play Afro-Pik - a play about Black Man Hair was premiered at the Central School of Speech and Drama summer school. In summer 2010 his short play 'Sloth' premiered at Theatre 503 as part of Golden Delilah's production, '7:1 Beyond Control'. Gordon was art designer on the feature films 'Fit', 'KickOff' and 'Bashment' (all Team Angelica productions). In 2011, with Rikki Beadle-Blair he established the imprint Team Angelica Publishing. Its first book was Beadle-Blair's What I Learned Today. Faggamuffin His book Faggamuffin was published in 2012. It is about a gay Jamaican reggae producer on the run from gangsters.Hazelann Williams, "The plight of a ‘faggamuffin’", The Voice, 03/02/2012, http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/plight-%E2%80%98faggamuffin%E2%80%99 Published works *''Black Butterflies'' (GMP 1993), winner of a New London Writer's Award in 1994 *''Skin Deep'' (GMP 1997) *''Warriors & Outlaws'' (GMP 2001). *''My Life In Porn: The Bobby Blake Story'' (Perseus Books 2008, cowritten with Bobby Blake) *''Faggamuffin'' (Team Angelica Publishing, January 2012) *''Colour Scheme'' (Team Angelica Publishing, January 2013) References Category:English screenwriters Category:Living people Category:People from Shepherd's Bush